i66 The Life of Fred Archer 
racing. Fred Archer seemed to be a personality even on this 
far-away Queensland course. 
"Wasting . . . did it — not his own hand. I never go near 
Newmarket without looking into the graveyard on the Heath, 
within sound of the morning gallops, and I stand before Archer's 
grave and think over the past. If ever a man was done to 
death by his profession, he was. No man could have stood 
such a strain. There he lies in peace. I sometimes wonder if 
he can still hear the sounds on the Heath and see the jockeys 
go to their work. I wonder. Who knows ? Perhaps he 
can." 
" I daresay," said one of the greatest authorities on racing 
matters, in 1914, " that if you have been talking to Mr. Port- 
man he has told you that Archer was not a bookies' jockey, and 
that one reason why he said he always wanted to Avin was to 
get the better of the bookmakers. Anyhow, his main object 
was always to win and he would do most things to attain 
it. 
" If a man had a likely horse and Archer couldn't get the 
mount on it, he would tell the owner it was no good and dis- 
suade him from running it if he could, while he took care him, 
self to be on a horse that could win. He would shout at the 
other jockeys and swear at them and frighten them out of his 
way. He would win by almost any means in his power. Robert 
Peck told me that before the Derby of 1881 Archer went to 
him and asked him to give him the mount on Peregrine. Peck 
said he didn't see how he could, as he had arranged for Webb to 
ride him. Archer then said : ' Well, give Webb a thousand 
and put me up.' Peck said it was rather a temptation, and it 
would have paid him well to give Webb the thousand pounds, 
but he didn't do it. Webb had to waste a good deal to do the 
weight, and he was so weak and done up that Peck said he 
felt if he could have put a lemon squash in his mouth the last 
few strides he would have won. I don't see it would matter 
